Jung Ryeo Won Talks About “Witch’s Court” Character And The Need For Strong Female Roles

Jung Ryeo Won recently sat down for an interview where she talked about her brash “Witch’s Court” character Ma Yi Deum and her thoughts on playing such a unique female character.

When asked if Ma Yi Deum was a “girl crush” character, Jung Ryeo Won joked, “Gong Hyo Jin visited me on set and told me, ‘You can’t let them know you’re a coward.’ A friend of mine, Im Soo Mi, is exactly like Ma Yi Deum. Once we went to buy something and the man quoted a really high price and she told him directly, ‘You’re not trying to pull a fast one on us, are you?’ Soo Mi had said it would be refreshing to have a character like this.”

In response to the question about independent female characters, she said, “I’m proud [to have played one]. When I received the role, I made up my mind not to complain about the hard work. I really hate it when people say, ‘This is why the main characters should be male,’ so I would go to set earlier than everyone else. I wanted to hear, ‘It’s good to have female main characters my age’ through ‘Witch’s Court.’ I had a sense of duty. It wasn’t a role I could take lightly, and I hoped that people could feel comfortable even with an actress in the lead role, so I did a lot of research for this project in particular.”

She added, “Kim Yeo Jin said that when she saw Ma Yi Deum, she cheered. It was a female character that she’d been waiting for. She was worried at first that Yi Deum would grab the attention at first and then let the male character lead, but Yi Deum led from start to finish so she was grateful to the writer. When I heard that, I thought, ‘She really thinks of the whole picture’ and ‘I should become a senior like this.'”